Principles of Financial Accounting

Catalog description

This course assumes no prior knowledge of accounting. The objective of this course is to introduce you to the concepts of financial reporting, the language of business, and its underlying assumptions and help you develop into an informed user of financial statement information. We will focus on understanding the mapping between underlying economic events and financial statements. We will discuss the role of the various institutions involved in the reporting process, the incentives that firms may face in making financial reporting decisions and the discretion that the firms have in financial reporting decisions. By understanding the environment in which financial reporting takes place you will be in a better position to evaluate critically the disclosures made by firms in published financial statements.